Development of asymmetric liquid crystal system with thermally double chiral inversion

Abstract

Chiral nematic liquid crystal (N*-LC) can be used as an asymmetric reaction field to produce helical conjugated polymers. The helical structure of the conjugated polymers crucially depends on the screw direction and helical pitch of the N*-LC reaction field. Previously, we synthesized axially chiral binaphthyl derivatives bearing asymmetric center moieties at the terminal sites of the substituents, and used them as chiral dopants to prepare the N*-LC system with thermally controllable helical sense. In this study, we prepared novel N*-LC system containing single host nematic liquid crystal (N-LC) and the above mentioned chiral dopants and achieved thermally double chiral inversion.